Last week we saw Nintendo lead the pack for the second week in a row as Mario Kart Wii dominated the software charts in Japan. This week tells a very similar story as the wacky go kart racing title racked in an additional 152,000 copies and took the top spot in the Media Create software chart list once again. Read more about the other games on the list in our full article after the jump.

Ubisoft struck gold with their acquisition of the Tom Clancy name for life. How much did it cost them, and how big a gold mine will it bring them? Talks are also in the air about their venture into the world of MMOs with the said name. To find out more, read up over at the full article.

We're in for a brutal week to kick this month off, marked by Kratos' latest killing trip through God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PSP and Jimmy Hopkins' enrollment for scholarship in Bullworth Academy. War is nigh with Warhammer 40K's latest expansion and Army of Two, though there's still a couple of baseball titles inbound if you want a break from all the violence. All these are waiting at the full article, so hit that jump!

One of the most interesting things a developer can do is to explain how or why they did this and that for a particular game. Ubisoft did exactly that in a video interview with Michael Deplater conducted at the latest Game Developers Conference, and the game in question was Tom Clancy's EndWar. Get it straight from the horse's mouth after the jump.

Got some cash to burn on video games? Well you might want to check out the "monster sale" that Play.com is having. They've got some pretty good titles such as Conan for the Xbox 360 and the World of Warcraft Battle Chest for PCs and Macs.

Want to find out more? Head on over to the full article for more details on the sale.

 

It's been a month since we've kept track of the hottest selling games in the UK, but we guess later is better than never. The latest numbers rolled off from Chart Track's UK list for the week ending August 25, and Take-Two Interactive's BioShock claims the throne from top-notcher Transformers: The Game from Activision.

With Activision's multi-platformer sitting on number two, Nintendo's Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training stays firmly at the third spot. Another Brain Training title, More Brain Training From Dr. Kawashima, tails closely at third, swapping places with Wii Play which now sits at fourth.

Pokemon Diamond drops two places to sixth, pushing Electronic Arts' Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix to the number seven spot. Ubisoft's Surf's Up, Microsoft's Blue Dragon, and Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Warfighter 2 closes the lower three of the top ten, from eighth place onwards in that order. In quick summary, that would be:

• BioShock (Take-Two Interactive)
• Transformers: The Game (Activision)
• Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo)
• More Brain Training From Dr. Kawashima (Nintendo)
• Wii Play (Nintendo)
• Pokemon Diamond (Nintendo)
• Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix (Electronic Arts)
• Surf's Up (Ubisoft)
• Blue Dragon (Microsoft)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Warfighter 2 (Ubisoft)

Let's face it - cute, cuddly monsters with freakish powers beats angst, bespectacled wizard trainees any day. Taking the lead in UK's most recent Chart Track all-format poll ending July 28 is Nintendo's Pokemon Diamond for the DS, with Activision's Transformers: The Game taking second place.     

For the PlayStation 3, Resistance: Fall of Man appears to be holding to the number 10 post, while Forza MotorSport 2 for the Xbox 360 tailgates along at 11th.

• Pokemon Diamond (Nintendo)
• Transformers: The Game (Activision)
• Pokemon Pearl (Nintendo)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Electronic Arts)
• Shrek the Third (Activision)
• The Darkness (Take-Two)
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (Electronic Arts)
• New Super Mario Brothers (Nintendo)
• Pirates of the Carribbean: At World's End (Disney Interactive Studios)
• Resistance: Fall of Man (Sony Computer Entertainment)
• Forza Motorsport 2 (Microsoft)
• Rugby 08 (Electronic Arts)
• Mario Striker Charged Football (Nintendo)
• MotorStorm (Sony Computer Entertainment)
• Spider-Man 3 (Activision)
• Tomb raider: Anniversary (Eidos)
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo)
• Tom Clancy's rainbow Six: Vegas (Ubisoft)
• Transformers: The Game - Autobot (Activision)
• Wario Ware: Smooth Moves (Nintendo)    

Here's the latest on sales of hardware and games for the weeks ending on July 7 and 14. July 14, it has to be noted, is just a day after E3.

 

Recent data gives light to Sony's claim of a doubling in their sales since their US$ 100 price drop. For the sales week ending on July 14 at least, sales for the PlayStation 3 rose 131%, more than double, outrunning the sales of the 360. The Wii rose by 10% but the Xbox hardly moved, selling only 1% more than the previous week.

The Nintendo DS is enjoying a ginormous success; although sales slipped by 5%, you can hardly scoff at more than 97k units sold in a week. The PSP sold only 50k on the same week.

It also looks like the top 5 games in Amazon last July 8 seems to be just as popular to non-online shoppers. The most popular games for each console is Wii Play for the Wii, The Darkness for the Xbox 360, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the PS3. Still going strong for the Wii are Mario Party 8 and Resident Evil 4. Slipping into the 360's favor is Transformers, while Gears of War is almost out of the top 10 in 9th place. Transformers also made it to PS3's top 3, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas is still popular in second place.

Of the total of 11,878,996 units of next gen consoles that have been sold in America, 55% of those are Xbox 360 units, 31.3% are Wii, and the PS3 accounts for 13.7%. Also, if the PS3 continues to sell more than the 360, and if the Wii continues its current pace, the 360 will be in for some tough times.

For a detailed list of the sales for the week of July 7 and 14, you may click our Read link below.

 

Looking back to Chart Track's statistics for the first week of July, Electronic Arts' Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP, DS, Wii, PC, mobile) stays on top of the all-platforms charts for the second week in a row, while UK gamers flex their nerve cells with Nintendo's More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima which sticks to a solid second.

Activision's Shrek The Third still keeps to the third spot the week ending July 7, though Take-Two's The Darkness dips two spaces to fourth. Keeping close to another fellow horror game, Capcom's Resident Evil 4 haunts at fifth place, while happily tailing behind with a Wiimote is Wii Play from Nintendo - still strong in the charts after re-entering the top ten.

Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas still relies on lucky number seven to stay up the charts, with Microsoft's Forza Motorsport 2 slowly revving down from sixth to eighth. Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End slips to ninth place from eighth (giving new meaning to nine pieces of eight, we reckon), while Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training from Nintendo re-enters the charts and continues to twist noggins at closing number 10.

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: (Electronic Arts)
2. More Brain Training From Dr. Kawashima (Nintendo)
3. Shrek the Third (Activision)
4. The Darkness (Starbeeze)
5. Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
6. Wii Play (Nintendo)
7. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (Ubisoft Montreal)
8. Forza Motorsport 2 (Microsoft)
9. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Eurocom Entertainment)
10. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo)

With video games becoming more and more expensive, keeping track of what games to buy and budgeting accordingly has become one of the most valuable skills in a gamer's arsenal. Today we have a release schedule for Ubisoft's upcoming games to help you keep track of your purchases.

The company's September lineup includes three new titles each for the Xbox 360, Wii and PC gaming platforms. Meanwhile, October should be a treat for Naruto fans, as the Ubisoft's first Naruto title, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, is slated to hit retail stores on October 19.

So far, November seems to be the biggest month with five different releases slated for that time. The titles - among them Haze and Assassin's Creed - are heavy hitters too. Anyway, you can check out the full release schedule below.

• September
• 7 - Dark Messiah: Elements (Xbox 360)
• 7 - Settlers VI (PC)
• 21 - Brothers In Arms: Double Time - 21st September (Wii)
• October
• 19 - Naruto: Rise of a Ninja (Xbox 360)
• November
• 9 - Assassin's Creed (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
• 16 - Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
• 16 - Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Wii, DS)
• 16 - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction (PC, Xbox 360)
• 23 - Haze (PS3)
• 30 - Haze (PC, Xbox 360)